III. 1465. May 22, uncle, James of Luxemburgh, who with a retinue CHAP. of one hundred knights and gentlemen attended her coronation.28 On the feast of the ascension the king created thirty-eight knights of the bath, of whom four were prudently selected from the citizens of London. The next day the mayor, aldermen and different companies met the queen at Shooter's hill, and conducted her in state to the Tower. On the Saturday, to gratify the curiosity of the populace, she rode in a horse litter through the principal streets, preceded by the newly created knights. Her coronation fol- May 26. lowed on the Sunday, and the rest of the week was devoted to feasting, tournaments, and public rejoicings.29 relations The elevation of Elizabeth was the elevation All her of her family. By the influence of the king her provided five sisters were married to the young duke of for. Buckingham, and to the heirs of the earl of Essex, the earl of Arundel, the earl of Kent, and the lord Herbert: her brother Anthony to the daughter of the late lord Scales, with whom he obtained the estate and title: her younger brother John in his twentieth year to Catharine, the dowager but opulent dutchess of Norfolk, in her eightieth:30 and her son Thomas by her former 28 Monstrel, iii, 105, 29 Wrycest, 501-503. Fragment ad fin, Sprot, 294, 295. 30 Juvencula fere 80 annorum, Wyrcest, 501, On account of the disparity of their ages, Wyrcester calls this maritagium diaboli. cum. But adds, vindicta Bernardi inter eosdem postea patuit. Ibid. What was the vindicta Bernardi ? III. CHAP. husband to Anne, the king's niece, and daughter and heiress to the duke of Exeter. We are assured by a contemporary that these marriages were viewed with jealousy by most of the nobility. Many saw those projects disconcerted which they had formed for the advancement of their own children, particularly the earl of Warwick, who had previously solicited the hand of the heiress of Exeter for his own nephew; all considered the sudden rise of the new family as an injury offered to themselves. To add to their discontent, the lord Mountjoy, treasurer of England, was removed to make place for the queen's father, who was created earl Rivers, and soon afterwards, at the resignation of the earl of Worcester, lord high constable.31 Discontent of the Nevils, 32 Of the three Nevils, George the youngest brother, bishop of Exeter, had received the seals on Edward's accession, and had lately been transferred to the archiepiscopal see of York. The next, the lord Montague, was warden of the east marches of Scotland, and with the title of earl of Northumberland had obtained the estates of the Percies. The earl of Warwick, the third, had hitherto been the king's chief minister and general. He held the wardenship of the west marches, the office of chamberlain, and the government of Calais, the most lucrative and im 31 Wyrcest, 500, 501. 505, 506, 507. 32 The reader may see the particulars of the feast at his installation, and the names of the guests in Lel. Coll. vi. 1-14, 33 EDWARD IV. portant appointment in the gift of the sove- 34 33 Comines, who was often at Calais, tells us on the authority of the chief officer of the staple, that the government of that town was worth 15,000 crowns a year. Com. 1. iii. c. 4.-Stow adds that Warwick was a great favourite with the people, on account of his hospitality. "When he came to London, he held such an house, "that six oxen were eaten at a breakfast, and every tavern was full of his meat; for who that had any acquaintance in that house, " he should have had as much sodden (boiled) and roast, as he 66 might carry upon a long dagger." Stow, 421. "Cont. Hist. Croyl. 551. Capitali odio prosecutus est hominem illum, scilicet Carolum. Ibid. CHAP. III. III. 35 CHAP. demned the project, and advised a marriage with one of the French princes. To his objections were opposed the advantages which would result from the intended alliance, to the king by converting the enemy of his family into a friend, and to the nation by affording greater facility to the commercial intercourse between England and the Netherlands. Edward, perhaps to free himself from an imperious counsellor, commissioned Warwick to treat with the king of France, who received him at Rouen with all the respect due to a sovereign prince, gave him for his residence the house next to his own, and by a private door repeatedly visited him in secret for the space of twelve days. During the earl's absence the bastard of Burgundy arrived in London under the pretence of performing feats of arms with the lord Scales, but at the same time to negociate the intended marriage. When the parliament assembled, the chancellor did not attend on account of a real or affected sickness: but Edward, whose suspicions had been awakened by the conferences between Warwick and the French king, went to the house of the prelate with a numerous retinue, required him to deliver up the seals, and, in virtue of an act of resumption passed at the time, took from him two manors, which he had formerly obtained from the crown.36 The treaty of marriage was, how 1467. May 6. June 3. June 8. 35 Monstrel. App. 22. Fragment, 297. * Rym. xi. 578. ever, interrupted by the unexpected death of the CHAP. duke of Burgundy, and the sudden departure of the negociator in consequence of the news. 里 III. Warwick immediately returned, bringing with July 1, him ambassadors from France, whose object it was to prevent the alliance between Edward and Charles, They had been instructed to offer the king an annual pension from Louis, and to consent that his pretensions to Normandy and Aquitaine should be referred to the decision of the pope, who should be bound to give judgment within four years. But Edward received them coldly, left the capital, and appointed an inferior agent to hear, or rather to reject, their proposals. The earl by increased attention sought to compensate for the neglect of the king: but he was not sparing of hints and menaces in the company of his friends, and on the departure of the ambassadors retired in discontent to his castle at Middleham in Yorkshire. During his Oct.1. absence the princess gave her consent to the marriage in a great council of peers at Kingston; and soon afterwards an emissary from queen Margaret, who had been taken in Wales, informed the king that Warwick was considered in the French court as a secret partisan of the house of Lancaster. As the earl refused to quit his castle, he was confronted with his accuserat Middleham and though the charge was de Wyrcest. 510. Duclos, Hist. of Louis XI. |